Should trial players' attributes stay invisible?

I began a new save (15.3.2), got some players on trial and their attributes remain "unscouted". Is this the way its supposed to be? As far as i can remember player attributes used to become visible when players were on trial.

I guess this may be related to my manager's low player and youngster knowledge.

As far as I know this was something that was changed for FM 15, it was a bit of an exploit in the past where you could offer a player a trial and almost instantly know the player's attributes.

Its a mystery how the attributes become fully visible the moment the player signs on with a full-time contract then!

More of my trial players' attributes did become visible after a while and especially after a friendly game. That so few of them were visible when the players first arrived probably was down to my low knowledge on players and youngsters.

It was an exploit before. Sign a million trial players because there are no consequences. Their attributes would unlock completely, allowing you to sign the one or two you want.

Now the attributes won't magically be uncovered the instant he arrives on trial, but will still do as if you're scouting him which you technically are. Whether it's faster than just scouting him, I'm not sure.

What i don't get is how could you scout an unattached player anyway? It's not like there playing a match for your scout to see them in.

You'll only get a small increase in knowledge when scouting an unattached player which represents the scout using his contacts & watching video of the player to form an opinion, iirc the knowledge gain is about 20% & the max knowledge level is around 70%.

If a player is on trial the knowledge gain is dependant on him playing matches to assess his ability.

What i don't get is how could you scout an unattached player anyway? It's not like there playing a match for your scout to see them in.

Definitely possible in real life. Show off your skills at the right time and the right place and you might get a few offers.

What i don't get is how could you scout an unattached player anyway? It's not like there playing a match for your scout to see them in.

I have an image in my head of my scout following an unattached player about....

Hmmm going to the shops: 20. Good good.

Not happy about that parking ticket though, hes taking issue with the warden: argues with officials.

The gaffers going to be happy with this report....

It closes an exploit, but it is a bit of a clumsy addition, if you ask me. There is no logical consistency with signing a player on a trial, and then signing in him on a contract. In the former case, you know nothing about the player (does it increase over time? I rarely use trial players) whilst the latter you instantly know everything about him. Is the rational simply to close an exploit? And if so, will signing a trial player become like scouting them (i.e. you 'unlock' their attributes over time?

It closes an exploit, but it is a bit of a clumsy addition, if you ask me. There is no logical consistency with signing a player on a trial, and then signing in him on a contract. In the former case, you know nothing about the player (does it increase over time? I rarely use trial players) whilst the latter you instantly know everything about him. Is the rational simply to close an exploit? And if so, will signing a trial player become like scouting them (i.e. you 'unlock' their attributes over time?

As mentioned, when a player is on trial, his attributes will start unlocking as you play him in matches.

The difference between signing a player on trial and signing him otherwise is that there's a risk when signing fully as you're handing him a contract with wages to be paid, squad status expectations etc. whereas on trial there's no risk at all. Ideally in future the system could (and should) be more complicated so that it doesn't even unlock fully when you sign him permanently but this was a good compromise at least.

On 4/25/2015 at 16:09, HUNT3R said:

As mentioned, when a player is on trial, his attributes will start unlocking as you play him in matches.

The difference between signing a player on trial and signing him otherwise is that there's a risk when signing fully as you're handing him a contract with wages to be paid, squad status expectations etc. whereas on trial there's no risk at all. Ideally in future the system could (and should) be more complicated so that it doesn't even unlock fully when you sign him permanently but this was a good compromise at least.

I know this is old but i just stumbled upon this thread while researching the same thing.

I feel like now we've swung the other way and trials are a bit underwhelming... I mean, if you get a lad on trial for a week it's just that - you're trying him, meaning that after 7 days on your training ground and a friendly or two played you shouldn't still have absolutely no clue (even a range of) how pacey he is, for example. Surely when you are testing a new recruit you would intentionally make a point to have him go through the motions of determining his attributes, even if it takes the whole week to get a fairly complete picture, no? I'm currently giving a 6th tier side a go while I wait for the new release and so I'm pulling in a lot of trialists looking for frees and it's just a bit slower going than I anticipated - perhaps it's only reflective of just how poor my staff are at this level?

I'm also a bit confused by the combination of coach reports and scout reports. When looking at a player you have on trial why are they kept separate, and why do the coaches' reports just disappear once the trial ends? The scout reports show the percentage of knowledge they have reached, but a coach report does not - how do I know how complete a picture the coach currently has? This also brings me to wondering why scouts who have a higher "judge current ability" attribute than my coaches are not able to give me a report on my own team on the squad depth screen, but that's a whole other issue...